I've been asked several times, "You've experienced a lot of different things."  Most of the time these people have been quite admiring.

I know I've been lucky to have experienced so many different things.  Some say it's not being consistent.  But I've ALWAYS been consistent...

Others say, correctly, it's made me more adaptable.

And that is how companies need to be in these times.  Diversity isn't a catchword - it's essential if a company is going to be adaptable.

That's true of all organizations.  Including universities - although many don't know how.  I've been reading about how there's been so little university studies about the power of present social media.  A bit behind changes...

It's why my PhD was so hard for some academics to get their heads around.  One senior lecturer said to me, "You've got a lot of internet references in your bibliography."  Of course I did.  I'd be a c**p researcher if I didn't...

Anyhoo... getting ahead of my writing.

Now where was I last time? 

Oh, yeah, I'd left the chemical company I worked for.  I'd been very ill - I got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  Strange illness MS.  Some get it and get more ill and more ill until they're virtually completely paralyzed while others get one attack (like not being able to walk) recover and never get ill again.  Many people are somewhere in between.

It was a scary time for me but... it taught me about disability from personal experiences.  That has made me more aware of other disabled people.

Same with my hearing.  I don't hear very well so I closely look at lot at a person's face and body language when I talk with them.  To read someone's body language so deeply.  A girlfriend told me that's quite an unusual but useful skill.  I suppose that's why I'm a respected interviewer.  Plus I do like people as well!

Again the advantages of diversity.

Well, it took me some time to get back into gear after I left the chemical company until I went to a course at a local college.  But just before I went on that course there was something that affected so many people around the world.

31st August 1997.  Princess Diana died.  I actually remember it in the early hours.  I heard it on the radio.  At that point no one knew that she'd been fatally injured.

The international grief.  Not long after that the conspiracy theories rose about her death.

I remember even people like Eddie Izzard mentioned her death during his tour around that time.  He said,

Diana died, Diana died, and...                             
Everyone's gone quiet, what's going on?                             
No, I'm not doing big laugh death jokes.                             
I don't do those because it's not a big funny area for me.                             
But she did die and we were thrown by it.                             
Some people were big fans 
and were having a lot of grief time.                             
I was not a big fan. I didn't dislike her.                             
…
Front page for the last four months … and that was so in your face that you had to be thrown. 
It happened one night and you woke up and went, "What? Weird."                             
…
and so there was a mother who died,                             
there was a lot of sympathy  towards the kids,
…
That was understandable.                             
And my dad said something to me -                             
"My mum died when I was six and my brother was eight.                             
"No one gave a shit."

We should never forget that tragedy can affect anyone.  Businesses need to account for that in their staff but also that people need things to help them during their negative experiences.  Some businesses can help in that.  Like in my work opposing hate crimes...

So...

This local college I went to... You'll notice that I do tend to go off at angles...  I can relate some of my experiences to a lot of other issues - people or businesses...

I did a BTEC in Performing Arts.  Now some people might think that was a step down after being a QC Manager etc but it was all about experiencing something different.  Plus, I learnt over the years that egos mean nothing (although some people might disagree with that...).

So I learnt about all sorts of different people.  Backgrounds.  Religions.  Meeting women who'd experienced domestic violence.  People with mental disabilities and various dyslexic problems. 

And I played a big role in a pantomime touring to various schools.  :-) 

Plus I met one guy on the course who, when I first saw him, stood there with his head almost shaved and long scars visible on his scalp.  Yeah, he looked dangerous.

You know what? 

I was wrong. 

His scars?  From a childhood accident - hit by TWO cars in ONE incident when he was 12.  In reality he's a gentle guy.  And years later we're still good friends.  Completely different lives but we just get on.

I think that must have been one of those incidents that we could say I was showing unconscious bias against him because of my bad judgements. 

Once again we get the idea that Diversity enthusiasm in a business can counter the harmful effects of conscious and unconscious bias... 

So it came to the end of my Chemistry degree...

So where to go?  What to do?

Many of us feel that several times throughout our lives.

I had a wonderful holiday with my girlfriend at the time.  We went to France.  Went to castles, museums and to the Pompideu art gallery.  There we saw modern art pieces.

A urinal hanging from the ceiling by a cord.

A coat hanger nailed to the floor.

A sign that gave the title of an art piece.  It said 'Ready Made' and...

There was nothing by it.

I started to understand.  I started to smile.  I started to enjoy.

A grand piano covered in grey foam.  A rusty drum with twisted piping wrapped around it with a hair dryer on the top of it.  And a foot pedal.  That invited.  I trod on it.  The hair dryer switched on and the whole thing shook!

Oh what fun!

Another room.  There I saw a big dark blue panel on the wall at the back of the room.  I walked over to it and read the title.

'Dark Blue Panel'.

That's it.  I couldn't stop laughing.  I was laughing so hard.

Then a serious looking security guard came over. 

Oh.  Ah. 

He pointed to me to follow him.  Oh... I thought... I'm in trouble.  But he didn't escort me to the exit.  Oh... I'm going to get disciplined or something...

He led me to the entrance of another room and pointed me to enter it.  I slowly followed his directions... but I was in another art gallery room.  With another dark blue panel!  I turned to the guard but he had gone! 

I started laughing so much I had to sit down.

Thing is.  I had given the artists making those pieces the greatest compliment.  They had triggered a powerful emotional response from me.  Their art had made me remember them.  And that I'll always be grateful for.

I went down to Amboise and went to the inspirational Leonardo da Vinci museum.  Wow.  What a multi-talented man he was.  Very inspirational.

During that time I applied for positions within finance but it wasn't helped by a recession that meant many recruitment doors were closed.  So I did a Diploma from the Institute of Personnel Management.

I learnt how to ethically manage and had a placement with a company.

This company's Personnel Officer was going on holiday so they needed someone to fill her place.

So I did.

I found that lessons in managing people are different from actually managing but I enjoyed that difference 

and so did the staff at the company.  I learnt how to inspire and be considerate in ways they didn't expect.  When I was due to leave they gave me a best wishes card and all of them signed it with well wishes.

During that course I met Liz.  Thus began a link that transcended the limited definitions of friendship, relationship and family. 

She heard me sing and trained me to sing better... (Some of my music is on
http://www.metalbox3000.co.uk/corium-hide-music.html )

After the Diploma I got the job working at an industrial chemical company.  

The evenings were different.  Singing for various bands around Manchester.  The first one I was in got invited to perform at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.  But the leader of the band broke the band up first.  "It wasn't playing the kind of music I wanted." he claimed.  But Ronnie Scott's!!!  THE jazz club! 

I have so many stories about what went on with the other bands but that's a big blog entry in itself...

It was personally a confusing time on several levels.  I poured my thoughts into the poetry I wrote.

When I read them now I realized just how angry I was.  How confused I was...

And when I was writing poetry in hospital...

I was partly paralyzed on my right side in '95.  The year my grandma died and the owner of the company I worked for took away the budget for a lab I was designing for Quality Control - I was the QC manager and I wanted proper testings for the products being made. 

In the hospital I received drips and two nurses took me outside to learn walking again.

How frightened I was.  My writing during that time was... quite dark.

During that time this company I was working at I had some important decisions that needed to be made and I took them. After all I was the QC Manager.  And I was trained as the company's Quality Auditor.

But I got told off by (of all people) the Managing Director for not consulting him during a couple of decisions. I said, "A decision needed to be made at that point. You weren't available nor was anyone else. So I made that judgement."

I did that twice and, on the second time a product that we supplied was faulty. I got questioned again. I said, the test results I was given said the product was OK. If it wasn't OK then the ways the products were tested needed to be reconsidered. But they didn't dare do anything. They didn't blame me - they knew I was right.  So they didn't do anything...

After I left that company only then did they recognise some of the things I did were significant.  I had designed a self-checking QC computer program while there.  During that time I ended up retraining staff who had been to computer programming classes funded by the company...

I was also in the early stages of designing a more advanced program when I decided to leave.

After I left I met one of the directors who told me they had been looking at my computer and noticed I was designing this more advanced program.  He asked me could I complete it?

"Yeah." I said, "For a commission."  He chuckled. 

What do you think happened?